Jawbreaker mushrooms

[jporter17]

I have an original Jawbreaker Mushroom from the Sacto Area. My mama is 4+ years old and finally started popping green in this last year. Interestingly, I have had one baby show some green. Otherwise just red and orange to start with. I suspect my mama will sport purple in a few years . I can't wait. I've got a few babies going. When mama is happy she definitely makes babies, no need to cut or use a blender(gross)!!!

I got a couple jawbreakers from slojmn and one had already started popping a baby on one of the plugs they shipped on. I bought two, and am now up to 4 with one popping another baby. They are very bright and colorful. They get lots of compliments from the local reefers. JP

 

[Nuocmam]

When I bought mine it was the size of a kernel of corn and it already had a good amount of red on it. Thank you Zack for the info.

 

[kmaintl]

Beautiful Picture!! Those look identical to my patch of Jawbreakers. Some of my babies develop at about 1" right from the start while others are smaller. It just depends how much of that goo mama lays out as she makes babies.

Alicia, I just saw someone local who picked up 2 polyps from you 3 months ago. His 2 polyps split and now he has 4... and one of them is showing some potential green. I've had my colony for 7+ years and never had a baby show green within first few months. Local reefer says your mother is almost entirely red and beginning to show green now. Any updated photos?

 

[ingtar_shinowa]

love these guys.

 

[kmaintl]

I was actually the lucky fella that picked the original tie dye from Rommel. Never regretted that buy one bit. It is a slow grower, but that's never bothered me. It's amazing to watch the colors develop over time. When I got it from Rommel he simply called it The Mystery Mushroom. I felt Tie Dye was a very aprapos name, so I tacked it on (heck, I bought it, so I could call it what I wanted!). It didn't produce any babies for me for over a year, then slowly started pushing out polyps from the foot. I only get a couple to a few a year from the largest polyps even to this day, but I find that's plenty for me. I've never tried forced propagation as I wouldn't want to do such a thing to my prized shrooms.

I will say that after having acquired some of the other lineage commonly referred to as Jawbreakers, I'm convinced there are definitely at least two different kinds of mushrooms out there. From the very start the babies look very different and the color development is very different as well. I regularly get tie dye babies that show red stripes from the start, and even some that show green right away. Every polyp is different, so the colors develop uniquely on each one and time tables can vary a lot. The jawbreakers have yet to develop anything but red spots and a few stripes for me. The jawbreakers also get no where near as big, and babies are tiny compared to Tie Dye babies. Babies from the Tie Dye can be 1"+ at times, whereas jawbreakers are pencil eraser-sized and only golden orange. All this makes me think it's even more imperative to make sure there is a distinction between the two classes of Jawbreakers out there, and naturally I like the Tie Dye moniker.

To finish it up, here are a few pics of some polyps in my collection

Awesome photos! Thanks for the write-up.

On how quickly the shrooms produce, I have the first daughter to your mother and it only drops one polyp per year starting the 2nd year. The daughters of our mother produces more than the mother ever did, about 1 to 2 per year. The next generation is a whole different story, some produce 2, 3, or 4 once or twice a year and others produce more like the mother. We get every shade of gold to neon orange in the same colony. It is definitely one of the most interesting mushrooms I've ever kept.

 

[Nanofins]

On how quickly the shrooms produce, I have the first daughter to your mother and it only drops one polyp per year starting the 2nd year. The daughters of our mother produces more than the mother ever did, about 1 to 2 per year. The next generation is a whole different story, some produce 2, 3, or 4 once or twice a year and others produce more like the mother. We get every shade of gold to neon orange in the same colony. It is definitely one of the most interesting mushrooms I've ever kept.

I would definitely agree; one of the most fascinating corallimorphs to keep and observe. I actually have a hunch that coloration of offspring has something to do with maturity of the mother polyp. My three largest polyps will produce only a couple babies a year, but theirs have a high chance of putting out babies that already have color stripes, even green. In the group photo, you can see the two right polyps already have red and green and both are less than a year and a half old. The polyp on the left is a few years older. The smallest polyp came from the larger of the two right polyps, and as you can see it has not developed striping from the start. Perhaps the development of the pigments in the mother have something to do with the pigments they pass to the offspring; who knows.

I have observed that the younger generations seem to be more productive, though definitely still several orders less than any common disco. I've never observed them to split, but rather the mother seems to migrate slightly and leave some tissue behind which then develops into a new polyp.

 

[kmaintl]

I would definitely agree; one of the most fascinating corallimorphs to keep and observe. I actually have a hunch that coloration of offspring has something to do with maturity of the mother polyp. My three largest polyps will produce only a couple babies a year, but theirs have a high chance of putting out babies that already have color stripes, even green. In the group photo, you can see the two right polyps already have red and green and both are less than a year and a half old. The polyp on the left is a few years older. The smallest polyp came from the larger of the two right polyps, and as you can see it has not developed striping from the start. Perhaps the development of the pigments in the mother have something to do with the pigments they pass to the offspring; who knows.

I have observed that the younger generations seem to be more productive, though definitely still several orders less than any common disco. I've never observed them to split, but rather the mother seems to migrate slightly and leave some tissue behind which then develops into a new polyp.

The coloring up is so random that I'm not sure there's actually any correlation to who drops the baby. For example, this is the first daughter to your mother:

it is the mother of our colony and probably not dropped more than 5 - 7 daughters in her lifetime. It is 6"+ across easily, but as you can see, it doesn't have much green, although still a beautiful coral to appreciate.

But then we get polyps like the below that's about 2 years old and it has lots of green coming in already.

Also, this daughter dropped 5 babies all at once and right now all her babies are just neon orange with some red starting to come in. Two of her babies dropped a couple of babies already at less than a year old. Every polyp is so different, some has stripes of red and green and other have specks or blotches of red and green. Not sure how long it takes for purple to come in, as not one of our polyps show any signs of purple yet.

The original owner of your mother, who was the first to purchase her after she came into the country, just got back into the hobby after taking a long break. His only regret he ever made was letting Rommel take her. He's starting his new colony from scratch with one of our great great great granddaughters.

 

[slojmn]

My Mama is mostly red with two green spots developing. One of the small green spots shows up in the top down photo in the left bottom corner at about 8:00 o'clock toward the rim of the shroom. It is very bright green in person. I have one other spot that is really tiny that is green as well on the other side but you can't see it in pictures. My mama drops 2-3 babies at a time. She seems to scoot along as Zach mentioned and leaves behind babies in her wake. Sometimes I find more developed ones underneath her canopy if she shrivels up a bit. I had one baby that had green in it from the get go...all the rest are very different forms of either all gold, some gold and more red, more red and some gold, etc. Super unique. I wish more green would develop in mama ...who knows what the next few years will bring though. Mama is getting bigger, presently 3" across and she has three new babies, you can see them in the top down shot. Two of the babies are on the right side at 3:00 o'clock and one is in the upper right corner at about 1:00 o'clock. It's still goo like, hehehehhehehe . I didn't want to disturb her so I left her in tank for pictures so they are not as great as I can get if I move her to my proper picture taking spot...but you get the idea .

 

[lps1212]

My Mama is mostly red with two green spots developing. One of the small green spots shows up in the top down photo in the left bottom corner at about 8:00 o'clock toward the rim of the shroom. It is very bright green in person. I have one other spot that is really tiny that is green as well on the other side but you can't see it in pictures. My mama drops 2-3 babies at a time. She seems to scoot along as Zach mentioned and leaves behind babies in her wake. Sometimes I find more developed ones underneath her canopy if she shrivels up a bit. I had one baby that had green in it from the get go...all the rest are very different forms of either all gold, some gold and more red, more red and some gold, etc. Super unique. I wish more green would develop in mama ...who knows what the next few years will bring though. Mama is getting bigger, presently 3" across and she has three new babies, you can see them in the top down shot. Two of the babies are on the right side at 3:00 o'clock and one is in the upper right corner at about 1:00 o'clock. It's still goo like, hehehehhehehe . I didn't want to disturb her so I left her in tank for pictures so they are not as great as I can get if I move her to my proper picture taking spot...but you get the idea .

mines does the same having popped 3 babies last year all 3 totally different 1 completely gold the other had yellow and some splats of red and the 3rd had some green and red its a sweet shroom only other shroom I like just as much if not more is my bounce shroom

 

[slojmn]

BTW, Here is a shot of the frag I sold that "local reefer" , you can see that two of the four babies are still in that goo stage, yet to develop. I don't think it was a "split" at all...mama just laid down a bunch of babies, the most she ever has, with the more developed babies being laid down first and having time to develop color and grow. Then she laid down a few others.

 

[Nuocmam]

Wow! That's a nice one slojmn. Hey do you guys feed yours?

 

[slojmn]

I don't do a thing to feed mine:neutral:. I suppose food falls on her periodically because I do shut down my pumps completely for feeding so my mandarin dragonette and red scooter blennie have time to get some food that settles to the bottom. I always spread some food to her area but it is not a thoughtful feeding technique for any of my shrooms, chalices, and zoas at all. They just get whatever they get whenever they get it.

 

[Reef4reef]

After 2 weeks colour up =))

 

[Reef4reef]

NOT MY PIC just want to post in here to share =)) i love those shrooms =))

 

[kmaintl]

My Mama is mostly red with two green spots developing. One of the small green spots shows up in the top down photo in the left bottom corner at about 8:00 o'clock toward the rim of the shroom. It is very bright green in person. I have one other spot that is really tiny that is green as well on the other side but you can't see it in pictures. My mama drops 2-3 babies at a time. She seems to scoot along as Zach mentioned and leaves behind babies in her wake. Sometimes I find more developed ones underneath her canopy if she shrivels up a bit. I had one baby that had green in it from the get go...all the rest are very different forms of either all gold, some gold and more red, more red and some gold, etc. Super unique. I wish more green would develop in mama ...who knows what the next few years will bring though. Mama is getting bigger, presently 3" across and she has three new babies, you can see them in the top down shot. Two of the babies are on the right side at 3:00 o'clock and one is in the upper right corner at about 1:00 o'clock. It's still goo like, hehehehhehehe . I didn't want to disturb her so I left her in tank for pictures so they are not as great as I can get if I move her to my proper picture taking spot...but you get the idea .

Thanks for the photos. Your mother is much more red than I'm use to seeing. I've haven't seen one similar to yours in our colony. Me and my partners split the colony up among the 3 partners and my new mother has one green stripe on it. I've tried many times to take a photo of it, but never get a good photo to post. I have a 3" polyp that's probably going on 3 years and looks like a green stripe is developing on that one as well. I love that almost all red on your mother, it's pretty cool.

 

[slojmn]

Thanks for the photos. Your mother is much more red than I'm use to seeing. I've haven't seen one similar to yours in our colony. Me and my partners split the colony up among the 3 partners and my new mother has one green stripe on it. I've tried many times to take a photo of it, but never get a good photo to post. I have a 3" polyp that's probably going on 3 years and looks like a green stripe is developing on that one as well. I love that almost all red on your mother, it's pretty cool.

When I got it from Jeremy as a baby it was primarily red with a tiny hint of the gold, I think that is why it developed so much red as it grew bigger. My plan is to keep one or two of these babies and see how their color develops. I'd like to have a small colony with a wide variety of polyp colors. I just always end up selling the babies .

 

[kmaintl]

NOT MY PIC just want to post in here to share =)) i love those shrooms =))

I need to get me one of these new Vietnam Jawbreakers, those colors are crazy at such little guys.

 

[kmaintl]

When I got it from Jeremy as a baby it was primarily red with a tiny hint of the gold, I think that is why it developed so much red as it grew bigger. My plan is to keep one or two of these babies and see how their color develops. I'd like to have a small colony with a wide variety of polyp colors. I just always end up selling the babies .

I do miss Jeremy, but I bet he's loving life in Hawaii. :bigsmile: The only reason why we have a huge mother colony is there is 3 owners to split the colony and 3 heads that need to agree on doing things. When our colony was around 100 polyps, a Bay Area fish store offered to buy entire colony for $5K when polyps were going for $300+... if there wasn't 3 owners, one of the owners may have sold the colony and only kept a few most colored polyps for himself. We choose to keep everything so we know how the color morphing develops as well as how they drop babies, how many and how often. I'm glad we waited.

 

[MoeManTheSnowMan]

I do miss Jeremy, but I bet he's loving life in Hawaii. :bigsmile: The only reason why we have a huge mother colony is there is 3 owners to split the colony and 3 heads that need to agree on doing things. When our colony was around 100 polyps, a Bay Area fish store offered to buy entire colony for $5K when polyps were going for $300+... if there wasn't 3 owners, one of the owners may have sold the colony and only kept a few most colored polyps for himself. We choose to keep everything so we know how the color morphing develops as well as how they drop babies, how many and how often. I'm glad we waited.

Can we see a colony shot? Crappy pics are fine

 

[kmaintl]

Can we see a colony shot? Crappy pics are fine

I haven't ever taken a photo of the mother colony. Only local pickups get to see the "for sale colony" and we've seen our share of jaw dropping.